I mentioned in passing in another thread that I took the Bumps for Boomers 4-day mogul skiing clinic in mid-January in Aspen, Colorado. I had a great experience and through what I learned I now enjoy skiing moguls. I avoided moguls and ungroomed snow prior to the class, but now seek out this type of terrain.
Joe Nevin, founder of Bumps for Boomers, sent the following content in a follow-up email to people who took the moguls skiing clinic this year. This is a good summary of the techniques. The video is a great visual of the B for B techniques and tactics as demonstrated by Joe himself.
BETTER BALANCE
• Keep hands forward and quiet
• Flex your ankles rather than bend your knees
• Lead each turn with a pole touch
• Ski with a narrow since to keep both feet on the same consistency of snow
MORE CONTROL
• Steer your skis perpendicular to, or higher than, the fall line underneath your feet at the completion of each turn in order to decelerate before you initiate each new turn
• To initiate each turn make your short leg long (instead of trying to start a turn) .
• WAIT for gravity to move your skis in the direction of the fall line before steering your skis
• Continuously LOOK DOWN the hill at your next turn location target
LESS FATIGUE
• Ski using a tall stance with long legs so your skeleton, rather than your muscular system, supports your body weight
• Ski slower to minimize the need for dynamic flexion and extension movements
• Avoid abrupt movement to make it easier to stay in-balance and eliminate the need for fast reflexes
• Move as little as possible and only move in slow motion what needs to move
SMART TACTICS
• The Green Line Turn has a smaller radius than the trough, e.g. you initiate your turn on the flat top of a mogul and drift down the secondary fall line of the same mogul that you initiated your turn on.
• Only do one of two things: TURN to a DRIFT or DRIFT to a TURN
One of the important take-aways I would like you to see is how slow my turns are (e.g. how slowly I come around the turn). This is a result of two factors:
• First, a conscious deceleration prior to initiating the next turn (remember that a zero momentum turn can be made ... even from a dead stop).
• Second, using short leg long to initiate the next turn and WAITING for gravity to start the turn rather than feeling an urgency to make the turn happen quickly.
Here is a video of Joe skiing the Pumphouse run at Aspen demonstrating the approach. Joe is 71 years old and still killing it in the moguls. I can't embed the video here due to the way it is configured in Vimeo: vimeo.com/210287161/3fdbb1be4e.
Joe Nevin, founder of Bumps for Boomers, sent the following content in a follow-up email to people who took the moguls skiing clinic this year. This is a good summary of the techniques. The video is a great visual of the B for B techniques and tactics as demonstrated by Joe himself.
BETTER BALANCE
• Keep hands forward and quiet
• Flex your ankles rather than bend your knees
• Lead each turn with a pole touch
• Ski with a narrow since to keep both feet on the same consistency of snow
MORE CONTROL
• Steer your skis perpendicular to, or higher than, the fall line underneath your feet at the completion of each turn in order to decelerate before you initiate each new turn
• To initiate each turn make your short leg long (instead of trying to start a turn) .
• WAIT for gravity to move your skis in the direction of the fall line before steering your skis
• Continuously LOOK DOWN the hill at your next turn location target
LESS FATIGUE
• Ski using a tall stance with long legs so your skeleton, rather than your muscular system, supports your body weight
• Ski slower to minimize the need for dynamic flexion and extension movements
• Avoid abrupt movement to make it easier to stay in-balance and eliminate the need for fast reflexes
• Move as little as possible and only move in slow motion what needs to move
SMART TACTICS
• The Green Line Turn has a smaller radius than the trough, e.g. you initiate your turn on the flat top of a mogul and drift down the secondary fall line of the same mogul that you initiated your turn on.
• Only do one of two things: TURN to a DRIFT or DRIFT to a TURN
One of the important take-aways I would like you to see is how slow my turns are (e.g. how slowly I come around the turn). This is a result of two factors:
• First, a conscious deceleration prior to initiating the next turn (remember that a zero momentum turn can be made ... even from a dead stop).
• Second, using short leg long to initiate the next turn and WAITING for gravity to start the turn rather than feeling an urgency to make the turn happen quickly.
Here is a video of Joe skiing the Pumphouse run at Aspen demonstrating the approach. Joe is 71 years old and still killing it in the moguls. I can't embed the video here due to the way it is configured in Vimeo: vimeo.com/210287161/3fdbb1be4e.
